De Blasio vs. Google

NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is going up against seach engine mega-giant Google, calling on the company to disclose the full scope of its efforts to influence policy in Washington, D.C. by spending some of its considerable resources on political contributions.

As Maggie Haberman reports, de Blasio has had discussions in recent weeks with Google on the heels of his successful effort to get Goldman Sachs to agree not to spend on political ads in this election cycle – even though a recent US Supreme Court decision allows corporations to drop unlimited amounts of cash to try to elect of defeat candidates running for federal office.

De Blasio’s office made this handy Web video to illustrate its efforts. It makes clever use of Google to demonstrate how little information there is on Google’s own contributions, while there’s plenty of stories out there about how the company has managed to become something of a political heavyweight in D.C.

This strikes me as a smart issue for de Blasio as he tries to position himself for a likely run for mayor in 2013. It’s in keeping with his populist ideology, which will make his allies in progressive labor circles happy, and also is just edgy enough to perhaps catch on with younger, tech-savvy voters.

De Blasio isn’t the first New York pol to go up against Google. Assemblyman Richard Brodsky recently asked AG Andrew Cuomo to investigate the company, alleging it is violating a privacy law he penned several years ago. In 2007, Assemblyman Mike Gianaris took on Google Earth, claiming its images were too detailed and could help terrorists plan attacks.